Update

 Once upon a time , someone asked me if I would be happy working a job that was not at the university. Since my position at the university closed in 2020, I found myself doing exactly that— working in jobs not at the university. It has been a very difficult transition.  Recently, things shifted quickly and in unexpected ways. The short version is that I am leaving the hotel which I am currently working, having taken a position at another.  The longer version of the story is that I stopped by to see my good friend and former GM at his new hotel. While I was visiting with him, one of the owners came out and introduced himself and we got to talking. After a few minutes, he said he wanted me to meet his brother. Our conversation turned into a job interview and 48 hours later I accepted a new position as front desk, manager and assistant operations manager. After some negotiating, we reached an agreement and I start my new position on April 9. It’s a much nicer hotel and these...

Finished Reading: Volume 1


The last five months, I’ve utilized this first volume reading guide published in 1951, navigating through all or portions of selected readings from: Plato’s “Apology,” Crito,” and “The Republic”; Sophocle’s “Oedipus The King” and “Antigone”; Aristotle’s “Nichomachean Ethics” and “Politics”; Plutarch’s Lives “Lycurgus,” “Numa Pompilius,” “Alexander,” and “Julius Caesar”; The Book of Job; Augustine’s “Confessions”; Montaigne’s “Essays”; Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”; Locke’s “Concerning Civil Government”; Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels,” Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” America’s Founding Documents, namely, “The Declaration of Independence,” “The Constitution,” and “The Federalist Papers”; concluding with “The Communist Manifesto” by Marx and Engles. All this after my 10 chapters per day Bible reading. I did not read every single day, but I managed to complete the curriculum of Volume 1. 

Of all I’ve touched so far, Sophocles and Job capture the human situation best, and spoke to me at the deepest level. From a distance, mankind’s story hints at the fantastical, even comical but up close, unmistakably tragic. Sophocles presents the horror story of a man trapped by consequence, no way out. Job’s tragic story includes redemption, restoration. 


The next volume and course of reading will be on politics and government and will revisit selected chapters from a few of the same works as well as others. 

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